Even if you're not going anywhere, don't get in the way.
I was always taught that the first rule of bunker play is to just get the ball out. When you have a steep face in front of you, this rule applies more than ever. Here, you have to get the ball up in the air as quickly as possible.
Everything will be all right - you know when? When people, just people, stop thinking of the United Nations as a weird Picasso abstraction and see it as a drawing they made themselves.
When you write biographies, whether it's about Ben Franklin or Einstein, you discover something amazing: They are human.
At a certain point in my career, I was probably having a difficult time 'holding space.' So you get a character that has to be commanding in order for him to resonate and make sense.
My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you I the best place for the next moment.
If you have ability in a certain area, why not capitalize on it and improve it and use it?
I've been given an amazing opportunity and I could not be more grateful. But I also know that all this will eventually die off. It's not real. It will go away and then you'll go away and then, I don't know, I'll be left sitting in some English hotel room.
It's really difficult when you don't see much of a team and you're not familiar with how they play.
And doing a film in that period, and having to really celebrate what they wore back then, how they sat and how they spoke. You know, what the etiquette was back then for a lady. All of those things are like putting on a wig and transforming yourself, which I love.
Well if I was going to describe my audience, it's going to take longer than you'd ever expect, hundreds of years in fact, because there's many of them, all over the world.
Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood.
So it's a much more difficult issue to organize around, because you can't get media at all to make your case. And that's where cases tend to be made politically.
I think public service is a calling and you do it as long as the things that brought you into the office can continue getting you up in the morning and as long as there's still work to get done.
By my third year of Law and Order, I was climbing the walls. But you don't leave a hit show, especially when you have a five-year contract.
To me, writing an ongoing series feels like driving a freight train downhill. All you can do is steer and pray.
Fame is a very confusing thing, because you are recognized by a lot of people that you've never seen before, and they're at a great advantage.
If you have a surreal life like I do, you've got to have fun along the way.
I like to interpret 'Call me a River', as if I'm saying, 'Now you're telling me you love me after all that, and I'm telling you to shove off.' That's my interpretation. But I would never 'say' that because somebody else might interpret the song in another way.
When you get ready to vote, make sure you know what you are doing.
If you spend your life competing with business men, what do you have? A bank account and ulcers!
Only the artists interest me whose hearts beat in unison with the poignant misery of the world. If you have not felt that, you have not lived. Pity is essential.
I have to tell you that J.S. Bach was easily the greatest musical innovator in the history of the world. He was so advanced for his time. There's a spiritual depth to his music. You can listen to it and it's like meditation.
The Democrats cannot find Romney fingerprints on what's happening to this country. Every fingerprint is Barack Obama's, Joe Biden's, Nancy Pelosi's, Harry Reid's, Barney Frank's, you name it, Eric Holder.
I'm lucky: I've got one of those fast metabolisms where I can eat whatever I want, and I don't put on weight. But I know that's only when you're young. It'll probably hit me when I'm 30.
If your mom is still around, you're so lucky.
Do something for somebody everyday for which you do not get paid.
I can tell you that I never aspired to be president. I always honour something that Commander Chavez told us: that while we were in these posts, we must be clothed in humility and understand that we are here to protect the man and woman of the streets.
If I can't outplay you in football, I'm gonna fight ya.
Since my romance novels had all been thrillers as well, it wasn't such a leap for me to move into the straight thriller genre. The most difficult part, I think, was being accepted as a thriller writer. Once you've written romance, unfortunately, critics will never stop calling you a 'former romance author.'
Little children, you are from God, and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in this world.
You don't stay married for 35 years by accident. I think that that's willful and intentional and something that both people really want.
Keep a strict, predictable schedule 365 days a year that has you eating, sleeping, and exercising at about the same times day in and day out.
Here you have an incredibly ambitious, accomplished woman who comes up against some of the same problems that women in power come up against today. Cleopatra plays an oddly pivotal role in world history as well; in her lifetime, Alexandria is the center of the universe, Rome is still a backwater.
I think knowing where you can generally fit is important, but the fun thing about being an actor is sometimes stretching beyond that stereotype and stretching beyond the box that people put you in.
I think it's good that I get scared because, if you never get scared, you don't have any need for guts.
